Well, I brought it in for an alignment...3 hours later no alignment because my camber is -1.5 in the front, blah blah. Anyway, the mech. says that my control arm is bent! I was like what the, i get the... he says yeah look(pointing to the arm) its the lower one, by the front left rotor. He said that they would align it, but the tire on that side would keep on getting chewed up! Anyway is any of this shit making sense, cause I'm lost, what the hell does it all mean??? Please help. He told me that they would attempt to straighten the arm and align it after. They want 150-200, does this sound right? These fucking eclipses are a pain in the ass, I miss my celica:rolleyes

Performance: Stuff that makes my car run better or go faster

Looks: Stock because looks doesnt make my car go faster or run better

Weight Reduction: CF Hood, No A/C or Powersteering Accessories, No rear interior




If it is truely bent and he just not being a lazy ass and does want to do the alignment and wants more money from you.....you might as well by a new control arm....it would be a whole lot easier for you that way.....I would take it someplace else and see what they say if it truely is bent

The lateral control arm and the rear control arm are both cast pieces - I wouldn't try to straighten either. I've never priced the rear control arm (the banana shaped one), but the lateral control arm is around $40 (including the ball joint) at a DSM friendly dealer.

Is it easy to bend those shits??? They look fucking solid as anything! I figured he was full of shit cause why would that thing be bent. Its the metal arm thing by the front. I will try to take a pic to show you guys. I guess I'll go to another place. I never had that problem with my tires getting chewed up until I dropped it and I havent been able to get an alignment cause no place wants to do it!!! This shit is driving me nuts!

have u done the recall on the ball joints/lower control arms? if not bring it into a mitsu dealer and have them replaced, under the recall. or u could get ur self a new lower control arm and mitsu, a shop, or you could install them.

Yeah what ^^^^ said. Take that shit in, it should be taken care of because of the recall.

don't try to bend it back. if it's bent it's gone through enough stresses to plastically deform, it's lost all of it's strength characteristics, if its bent back it WILL bend again, but easier.

it's not covered under recall, i just had my right side one replaced, it's about $450. you get an alignment with that. i brought my car in for the ball joint recall and the control arm was bent and coming off, get a new one.

DON'T BEND IT BACK, if you do you are putting your life at risk. it will fail again. JUST REPLACE IT

when i bought my 98 rs.. i had problems with the rear and found out my upper control arm was completely broken in half.. .. luckily for me it was under a "no lemon clause" so the dealer fixed it for free.. but i can see if i can dig up the paperwork and get a price of what it had costed the dealership to replace.. mine couldnt be fixed but i would suggest u just replace yrs instead of trying to bend it back.. cause it might not ride right even after its straightened... let me know if u would like that info (cost of replacment) or not=)

Well, thanks for the responses guys. First, I had my recall done in 2001, second I took the car in to STS and Mitsubishi and both places told me that the control arm was fine!! WHat the hell was the mechanic talking about then!?! Listen to what he told me, he said that he saw that the control arm was shaped like a banana and figured it was bent because they are not like that on Hondas!! That stupid fuck, I would've blown $500 on a new one when the old one is fine, as a matter of fact, Mitsu told me they were relatively new!! Then I just started to think back to when I took it the the mechanic and the entire shop was littered with hondas and he kept talking about putting nitrous in Hondas and shit like that!!!x( But I still have to get an alignment!